Taiwanese Students Win Two Silver Medals at Canada-Wide Science Fair

The National Taiwan Science Education Center (NTSEC) announced that two projects selected to participate in the Canada-Wide Science Fair both won silver medals. The research topics included precision medicine for urothelial carcinoma and a "closed-loop mental health support system" that balances safety and accessibility. According to the NTSEC, the Canada-Wide Science Fair, founded in 1962, has become the largest youth science competition in Canada. The 64th edition in 2026 was held in Edmonton from May 23 to 31, featuring 341 projects and 388 participants. Taiwan sent two projects selected from the 2026 Taiwan International Science Fair, both of which won silver medals. Kaohsiung Girls' Senior High School student Hsu Kai-lin's project, "Organoid-on-a-Chip for Precision Medicine in Urothelial Carcinoma," utilized patient-derived organoids combined with microfluidic chip technology to create a drug testing platform that closely mimics the human tumor microenvironment. By culturing tumor organoids from three patients and testing four chemotherapy drugs, the study demonstrated significant differences in patient responses, highlighting the feasibility of personalized drug screening. Tainan Shalun International High School student Chang Yun-hsuan's project, "Bridging the Gap of Privacy and Safety: A VR Mental Health Support System with Data-Synchronized AI Chatbot," integrated real-time physiological monitoring, anti-hallucination AI, and tiered VR training to create a secure and highly accessible mental health platform.